Thank you for being here, Ms. Bexten.
I want to make sure I have understood correctly. Before Bill S-3 was introduced, someone importing the products of illegal fishing into Canada would probably not have been fined. Not only does Bill S-3 state that this is illegal, but it also sets a maximum fine of $500,000. I have seen our Conservative colleagues more often opt for minimum sentences. But here we have a maximum sentence.
How can we justify the bill providing for a maximum limit? For a criminal who has done this 20 times in a row in two years and who has created a black market worth millions of dollars, why should the fine be capped at $500,000? Which expert decided on this $500,000 limit? Why isn’t it $800,000 or $1 million? Where did the assessment come from? Why not leave it to the judge, who would be fully competent to decide that, in this or that case, there has been a black market worth several millions of dollars for two years and that the fine will not be $500,000, but $1 million. Where does this come from?